The present invention relates to security systems and more particularly, to security bar seals for shipping containers.
Most bar seals for shipping containers are by necessity one time use bar seals. This is defined to mean that once a bar seal is locked on to a shipping container, the bar seal will have to be cut to open the container.
The present invention is directed to a bar seal that allows the user of the bar seal to use the bar seal with or without permanently locking the bar seal to the shipping container and at the same time provide a security mechanism that will allow the user not to have to cut the bar seal. The invention also provides a marking mechanism that will indicate tampering with the bar seals.
It is foreseen that the bar seal of the present invention will be used in two scenarios.
Scenario one, involves exporters sending goods in shipping containers from inland locations to seaports. In many countries, the goods transported by land will pass through check points wherein containers will be ordered opened by authorities prior to reaching seaports. In order to prevent theft, most exporters seal containers prior to shipping the containers by land. In most instances, when a container that has been sealed by a bar seal is ordered open, the bar seal will have to be cut and a new bar seal will have to be placed on the container. If there are many check points between the inland location and the seaport, then the costs associated with replacing the bar seals would be taxing on the exporter. An embodiment of the present invention will allow exporters to place temporary seals on the bar seals when transporting shipping containers by land, thereby allowing them to secure their containers without having them permanently sealed. Upon the containers reaching the seaport, the bar seals have a locking mechanism that permanently locks the containers after the containers are inspected.
Scenario two uses another embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment uses a reusable locking mechanism. This embodiment would be used when shipping containers by land. By using a marking mechanism along with the reusable locking mechanism and the temporary seal, transporters of shipping containers will prevent the containers from being compromised during shipment. Upon the containers reaching their final destination, the temporary seals would be cut, the reusable locking mechanisms would be opened, and the marking mechanisms would be checked to ensure that the bar seals were not compromised.
The inventor devised a marking mechanism that involves the assigning of random color codes to individual elements of the bar seals along with placing random specific codes on the elements of the bar seals. The codes are placed on the bar seals because thieves monitor shippers' behaviors. Thieves tend to work around the safeguards shippers put in place. By using the random color codes and placing the random specific codes on the individual elements of bar seals, he has devised a way of identifying any tampering with the bar seals, thereby reducing the chances that shipments protected with his bar seals will be compromised by thieves.
Several bar seals have been developed in the past, however, the inventor believes that the closest references correspond to his own U.S. patents and a pending U.S. patent application: U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,846 B1, issued on Jun. 3, 2008 for Bar Seal for Container; U.S. Pat. No. 7,044,512, issued on May 16, 2006 for Bar Seal for Shipping Container; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/164,551, filed on Jun. 30, 2008 for Bar seal For Shipping Container. However, the above references differ from the present invention. Specifically, the present invention includes the following non-obvious tamper resistant elements: a marking mechanism; a reusable locking mechanism; and a temporary sealing mechanism for temporary sealing a shipping container.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a bar seal having a unique marking mechanism, a reusable locking mechanism, and a temporary sealing mechanism for sealing a shipping container.